Donate to Doddridge Community Centre
Donate to Help Us Buy Our Building!
Your donation will help us buy our building and continue to create a welcoming space for the whole community by providing support, activities and opportunities.
Background
Doddridge Centre Ltd, started out over 25 years ago as Doddridge Community Care and has had to adapt to the many changes and conditions in the charity and third sector industry within that timescale.
Originally, as part of the United Reform Church, then becoming an independent charity in 2006 we have served the community and non-profit organisations for well over twenty-five years gaining solid reputation for our support initiatives, community events and cost effective meeting and office room hire for non-profit organisations and charities, thus assisting other organisations in delivering their important work for the communities they serve.
In the run up to the COVID pandemic and through it, Doddridge hit some lean times but still continued to serve the community, albeit in a reduced capacity. Fast forward to 2023 and Doddridge Centre has turned a corner and once again blossomed into a proactive, dynamic charity that is committed to serving the community; helping our most vulnerable, assisting people with events, training, support and helping to end isolation. We provide food parcels, a community wardrobe and in 2022 we were selected, by West Northants Council to re-open the famous St James Library, right here in the Lewis Hall of Doddridge Centre, we continue to hire meeting and office spaces to community, non-profit and local authority organisations.
The Need
This important community asset has been a prominent fixture in the area of St James, a close knit, diverse community that despite the nearby associated wealth of some of the biggest companies in the UK, still has pockets of deprivation. Doddridge Centre is embedded in St James and the surrounding area.
If we are to continue serving the community and adapt to changing needs then we need find ways to serve that purpose. One way is to be in charge of our own destiny and own our building which is currently leased by us by the church. They now have no further use of the building as place of worship and have offered us the opportunity to purchase the freehold. We have 18 months to raise the required funds to do so. It is hoped we will raise funds with a mixture of freewill donations, fundraising events and activities as well as grant funding. The more we raise through donations the better chance we have of attracting grant funding.
If we fail to raise the amounts needed then Doddridge Centre could conceivably cease to operate in the next few years if new landlords take over.
The Future
This is a unique opportunity for a community organisation to purchase its current premises and put current lease costs directly into developing our community services and further embed this charity into the community to help secure its future for generations to come.
So, if you would like to help us on our journey, in turn supporting our services and our communities then please consider giving a donation from one of the options here or get in touch with us for other options. We need to raise £200,000; your support will be invaluable in achieving this.
Graham Croucher, Chair of Trustees and Rachel Bott, Centre Director.